Events in Italy, where emotionally driven over-reactions to events have caused more additional deaths, may reflect a bigger global pattern, where reason has lost to hysteria.

Good article drawing upon Italian experience and explaining, among other things, how emotional overreaction to circumstances can be deadly.

"The decision to transfer patients from a hospital in the Lombardy town of Codogno, the original focus of the outbreak, to other hospitals in the region was “very unfortunate”, he said.

Big hospitals in northern Italy “are themselves becoming sources of infection,” said Maurizio Cereda, a co-author of the paper.

“It exported the contagion. They acted out of emotion – bring everyone into the hospitals. Instead they should have kept them outside for as long as possible,” said Prof Palu, an expert in virology and microbiology at the University of Padua."

Hospitalising coronavirus patients can cause more deaths, Italy data suggests